Test Subject One: Ransom
by Axius27
Summary: Unwilling to let the atrocities of Homura Akemi's treatment continue unabated, Mami and Sayaka take matters into their own hands... What else could they do, release a witch into the lab? That'd be madness :P This is a spin-off story of "Homura Akemi: Test Subject One" by PK Atomyst. Written with permission.


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STOP!**

 **This story is based off the events of "Homura Akemi: Test Subject One" by PK. Atomyst. It is strongly recommended that you go read that first and come back when you are at least up to chapter 6. Failure to heed this request will result in confusion and a lack of understanding of who the characters are and what the hell is going on. To read his story, insert the following URL on the FFN homepage (** /s/11408944/1/Homura-Akemi-Test-Subject-One **).**

 **Furthermore, this story is entirely independent to the Main Storyline Atomyst has laid out. Events of this story will not influence the Main Storyline, and therefore circumstances surrounding these characters do** _ **NOT**_ **indicate how the Main Storyline characters will behave (especially with a certain character whose name starts with a 'T').**

 **With that out of the way, you may now begin the story. We start with Dr. Endou sitting in his evil lair, twirling his moustache and stroking his white (bunny)cat while contemplating how he would torment Homura Akemi today…**

 **(not really, but you already had that image in your mind, didn't you? :P )  
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A/N: There's a word guide at the bottom of the page. Feel free to scroll down and figure out what those girls are saying.

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Dr. Endou was sitting in his office, reading through the night shift's report and writing up a progress report to send to his supervisor. Subject One hadn't done much last night. Besides a few brief periods of consciousness, she hadn't moved an inch. Although, the report did mention that Subject One kept on saying the word 'Madoka' throughout her sleep, which was the name of one of her friends. He wondered if that could be something he could use as leverage against her, and convince her to cooperate.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, prompting him to look up from the monitor. "Come in." The door opened, and Dr. Sakura entered. Endou quickly saved the progress report and turned to face her. "Ah, Dr. Sakura. You're early. Your appointment with Subject One isn't for another…"

He broke off, noticing the state of Dr. Sakura's attire. Her usually well-kempt clothes were rumpled and unironed. Her hair wasn't tied back, instead allowed to flow freely around her, with a few loose strands hanging over her face. Not like Dr. Sakura at all.

"Is something the matter, Doctor?" Dr. Endou asked. Sakura looked at him, then quickly shut the door behind her.

"We're in trouble." She said. The distress was clear in her voice. "Someone knows about Subject One."

Endou frowned. He'd had his suspicions about there being a leak somewhere, but he'd had yet to discover any decisive proof of it. "Really? What makes you say that?"

Sakura unfolded her clipboard and pulled out a CD case. "This appeared in my mailbox this morning." She said, handing it to him.

Endou examined the case. It was a plain, standard black CD case˗no markings to indicate where it was bought, making tracing its purchase near impossible-with a clear cover. This was good. These kind of cases are fingerprint magnets. Assuming the source of the leak was careless enough to not wipe it down, finding the culprit should be relatively simple. He then turned his attention to the disk itself. Again, there were no markings, but written in black marker was something that nearly made his heart stop.

 **WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING  
THERE WILL BE BLOOD**

And then, underneath the threat:

 **FOR DR. ENDOU'S AND DR. SAKURA'S EYES ONLY**

"As you can see," continued Sakura. "Someone out there clearly knows enough about what we're doing in here to find out that I'm working with you. And they don't seem happy about it."

"Yes." Muttered Endou, eyes still on the case. "It seems we have a security breach." He reached over and pressed a button on his keyboard. "Dr. Kaiji, please come to my office immediately. Bring a laptop."

"What are you doing?" Hissed Sakura. "It clearly says that…"

"Dr. Kaiji is the only person I know I can trust with this." Interrupted Endou. "And I'm not in the habit of folding to threats. Now, have you watched this yet?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, I came here as soon as I got it."

He nodded. "Understandable. Do you have any idea what might be on it?"

"None whatsoever. Do you?" Endou looked away from the psychologist.

"I might." He said, slipping into his thoughts. _Could this disk have something to do with…?_

There was a knock on the door. "Enter." The door opened for a second time and Dr. Kaiji walked in.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Yes. Have a seat." Endou said.

Kaiji complied and joined Dr. Sakura, frowning at her appearance. "Is something the matter?"

Endou cleared his throat. "We've had a breach." Kaiji's eyes widened. "And the perpetrator has sent us a message. Did you bring the laptop?"

"Yes. Of course." Said Kaiji, too stunned to say anything else.

"Good. Disconnect it from the rest of the mainframe and delete any credentials needed to access it. We can't risk another attempt at gaining access to our network." Kaiji quickly got to work, hands flying over the keyboard in a frenzy. When he was done, he handed the laptop to Endou.

"There. It's completely isolated now. No one's getting into the network from there."

"Well done." Said Endou. He pulled the disk out of the case and put it into the disk drive. "Now let's see what this thing has to say." He opened up the file directory and accessed the disk's contents. Inside was a single video file. Seeing no other option available, Endou clicked on the file.

The screen went black for a moment as the laptop loaded the file, and then was replaced by an image of a room. It was mostly shrouded in darkness, and mostly bare except for some vague silhouettes near the back wall, their appearance hidden in the shadows. A single lamp hung from the ceiling, creating a circle of dim light which covered a sizable amount of the floor. In the centre of the circle stood a teenaged girl who couldn't be much older than fifteen. She wore casual clothing and had her blond hair done up in drill curls. Looking straight at the camera; she smiled.

" _Bawano Din_ , Dr. Sakura, Dr. Endou, and whoever else you've got watching this with you." The girl said, tilting her head back and forth as if trying to peer through the screen and get a good look at Kaiji. "Well, I suppose I can forgive that. After all, I haven't given you any reason to heed my instructions yet, have I?

"Oh, but where are my manners?" she continued, that amused smile still on her face. "I need to introduce myself, don't I? I am known as _Melino_ , _Ioudo-Walo_ of the Puella Magi." She gave an extravagant bow.

"What is she saying?" asked Kaiji. " _Bawano Din_? _Ioudo-Walo_? I don't understand."

" _Walo_ 's Celtic." Replied Sakura. "I know that much. I think it means leader."

"But why is she speaking in a dead language?" said Endou. "And what are the _Puella Magi_ she mentioned?"

"We wish you good fortune and great luck in the future." Smile still plastered on her face, Melino's expression darkened and seemingly sucked the little light from the room. "You'll need it." She said, voice low. Then her cheery expression returned, as if nothing had happened to it. "Now, I assume you'd want some proof that I'm a Puella Magi, correct? Well, I hope this will do."

She clasped her hand on her chest, and suddenly her body became covered in rainbow light.

"What!" Kaiji started. "She's like Homura? She has powers too?"

"I thought you said Homura was the only one." Said Sakura, readjusting her glasses which had slid down in her shock.

Endou cleared his throat. "Firstly, I never said Subject One was the only one of her kind. One of the many questions we've asked her was if she knew of others like her. She never answered. Secondly, this shouldn't have been too unexpected. If there are others out there, naturally, they would come to Subject One's aid."

Sakura stared at Endou. "You… planned for this to happen?"

He shrugged. "Not planned. Rather, I prepared myself for the possibility. What did you think all the external defences were for if we were just trying to keep Subject One in? A little paranoia never hurt anyone."

Melino's transformation process was almost identical to Subject One's, although the results at the end were completely different as far as clothing went. As the light covered her body her feet lifted off the ground ever so slightly, and she almost seemed to hover. She stared at the camera with a smug, challenging grin spread across her face throughout the entire process. When her clothes began to tear away, she crossed her arms over her chest to hide her form, but she didn't lose her eye contact with the camera for even a moment. Then, yellow ribbons appeared from the aura of light that surrounded her, and began wrapping themselves around her body.

The ribbons morphed into a blouse and skirt, then she started touching different parts of her body to cause different accessories to appear. First a black musketeers hat with a white tail appeared on her head, then a flower shaped barrette. She ran her fingers across her neck and a yellow ascot appeared under her collar. Then, another set of ribbons wrapped around her torso and morphed into a tight corset. When it seemed the transformation was complete, her feet touched back down softly, and she fell into a theatrical bow.

Melino raised herself back up to an upright posture, and clapped her hands together. "Now that we've got the introductions out of the way, we can get down to business." She smiled again. "I'm sure you've seen our message already, so we can get straight to the point. As much as I'd love to extend the hand of friendship to you and become the best of friends," Darkness dropped over her face again. "you've made that impossible.

"You have kidnapped _Tanā Harma_ , the Eternal Griever, and are holding her against her will. And just when she had finally found happiness too." She shook her head, as if scolding a young child. "Honestly, I thought you humans would have learned your lesson when I aided the Visigoths and the Vandals sack your precious ' _Heart of the Empire_ '. Despite the fact our actions often result in your salvation, we're not on your side, or your enemy's side, or any side but our own. The Puella Magi just want to be left alone."

Melino sighed. "But no, you just had to stick your nose where it doesn't belong again; didn't you? And your civilisation had gotten so far. I mean, you got to space this time. Space! Really, I would have thought that remarkable achievement would have allowed you to open your minds to new concepts. I thought that maybe, just maybe, this time we could finally be at peace. And then you betrayed our trust. Again. You always do. Know that what comes next is your fault."

"What comes next?" asked Kaiji. "What does she mean by that?"

"I think," Sakura said slowly. "This is a declaration of war."

Endou looked at her. "Really now, Dr. Sakura, be serious. She's a child. How could see declare war?"

"I'm not so sure about that." Kaiji said. "I think she may be older than she looks."

"And what makes you say that?" Endou looked at him skeptically.

Kaiji reached over and paused the video. "The Visigoths and the Vandals were two barbaric tribes from where Germany is now. In 401 AD, the Visgoths launched a massive invasion of Italy. In the years that followed, they brought the Roman empire to it's knees, forcing them to negotiate peace with them with a payment of gold."

Sakura nodded. "I remember learning about that in school."

"But then the Emperor died, and rumours started flying around the man in charge of the payment, leading to his execution. There were several other peace negotiations, but each one was either refused by one party or ended in betrayal. So the Visgoths attacked Rome, and laid siege to it until 410, where the gates were open due to treachery. They laid waste to the city, and all because _someone_ kept interfering with events. It's a similar story with the Vandels forty years later, except the peace treaty was the marriage of two children which fell through because the Emperor died again. The Roman Empire never recovered and eventually collapsed. Both these events happened because of interference by a third party, and I think this _Melino_ is saying she was the guilty party."

"It's a good story," Said Endou. "But that occurred over a thousand years ago. She couldn't possibly have been responsible for that."

"Um… it may possible." Sakura opened her clipboard. "During my last appointment I performed a Psychological Profiling test based off security footage of Subject One. The results were… well..."

"What?" asked Endou impatiently.

"They didn't make sense at the time, because they don't fit Homura Akemi's background at all. According to this, she's suffering from a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but on a scale that just doesn't make sense. I did some research, and the only other profiles that seem to fit are from those who'd been fighting in a war for years on end, non-stop, and even then, her results are blown way out of proportion. In fact, the profile suggests that she only just stopped fighting."

"But Homura's been in a hospital for the last 3 years." Said Kaiji. "The only thing close to a war she's experienced was that super-storm, and that only lasted a few hours, not years."

"There's more." Sakura continued. "These reports all varied in time, reason, and circumstance. The only common factor besides the fighting I could find was that each one had watched their closest friends die, right in front of them. This got me curious, so I started looking into Homura's hospital records and background in more depth. I couldn't find any close friends who had died, or any close friends at all for that matter. She must have been very lonely. But when I started looking at her behaviour before her hospitalisation, I found it was in sharp contrast to her current personality."

Sakura adjusted her glasses. "I can find no common ground between the old Homura and the current one. Even the hospital records say that after her accident she still behaved like normal. It wasn't until the day she got her powers that she became like the current Homura. It's almost… it's almost like they're two entirely different people."

Endou was silent for a moment. "Is it possible that these records were faked?"

Kaiji thought for a moment. "I guess it's possible, but that'll mean that Subject One isn't the real Homura Akemi, just someone who's name she's stolen."

"Tanā Harma..." Sakura breathed. "The _Eternal_ Griever. Eternal, as in forever..." Eyes widening, the psychologist flipped to a new page in her clipboard. "This is what I was getting at. I did some comparisons of the matching Psych Profiles. In one area, the data is proportional to the amount of time the trauma was inflicted for. Look." She got out a graph showing a simple curve. "This is from an American war veteran after the Vietnam War. _This_ is Homura Akemi."

Endou didn't see much difference in the curves until he looked at the scale. While the first one's numbers didn't go that high, Subject One's went almost to triple digits. "This… What is this?"

Sakura shrugged. "I thought it was a mistake until a minute ago. The scale doesn't even go high enough to chart it properly, since it was designed with the average human lifespan in mind."

"Average…?" Endou started, trailing off as he realised what Dr. Sakura was trying to say.

She nodded. "According to this data, Homura Akemi, or whoever she's really is, is over 100 years old."

"That's..."

"I know." Sakura shook her head. "But the evidence says otherwise. Whoever these Puella Magi are, they don't play by human rules."

"And it seems that the only one who knows everything..." Kaiji gestured at the laptop. "...is her."With a nod from Endou, he reached over and resumed the video.

Melino raised her hand, and suddenly a yellow ribbon floated from it, entwining itself around her arm. "Of course, we're not unreasonable. As a wise man once said to me, _To err is human, to forgive divine_. And what are the Puella Magi if not divine?" She closed her hand, and the ribbon vanished in a flare of light. "So. We will give you a single chance to rectify your mistake. Fail to take it, and we will burn your civilisation to the ground."

She suddenly put her hand over her mouth, a surprised look on her face. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I got so caught up in my little monologue that I forgot to introduce you to our other guests. How rude of me." Melino looked over her shoulder. " _Glasīnā! Tuago Exs-skāto."_

" _To, Ioudo-Walo._ " Another girl emerged from the shadows. She was young, younger than Melino, but still in her teens. She had her teal-coloured hair cut short, almost boyish. This girl, however, made no attempt to hide the fact she had powers. Unlike Subject One and Melino, her outfit seemed more practical. She wore a shoulderless top and a skirt of white and blue, and a long white cape. That, alongside the scabbard she had strapped to her belt, and the way she moved indicating a certain level of duty and confidence, completed the image of a female knight. She stared at the camera with an expression of disdain. " _Langos._ "

Melino glanced at her, eyebrows scrunched up. " _Su-gnātso, Glasīnā._ " The bluenette turned to face her.

" _Sollo beir dlig-o._ " She spat, making an obscene gesture in the direction of the camera.

Melino stared at her for a second, then tilted her head and shrugged. " _Wīrjā_." Then she turned back to the camera, an apologetic expression on her face. "This is my handmaiden, Glasīnā. I'm so sorry for her behaviour, I'm afraid she has little tact for scum such as you."

"Anyway," She continued. "Tonight we were lucky enough to be able to host two _very_ important people. I'm sure you're anxious to meet them. They definitely want to see you." She gestured at the silhouette to her left. " _Qera geistlo._ " Glasīnā pressed her palm to her fist and gave a respectful bow, then grabbed one of the silhouettes and pulled it into the light.

Endou's eyes widened slightly. It was another teenaged girl. She appear no older than the other two, though at this point Endou had given up on trying to guess their ages. The girl was bound tightly with more of those yellow ribbons, and she had a piece of tape over her mou…

He frowned. That girl… add a few more years to her, and she'd look exactly Dr. Sakura. Endou glanced at the psychologist. Her face had gone pale and her eyes widened. Dr. Kaiji noticed quickly.

"Is something wrong, Dr. Sakura?"He asked, concerned.

"That's my cousin, Kyouko." She replied in a small voice. She put her head in her hands. "What have you gotten yourself into now, you fool."

Glasīnā dragged Kyouko to Melino's left, propping her up so she was fully visible to the camera. To her credit, Kyouko didn't look like a typical hostage. She didn't look afraid or willing to barter for her life; rather, she looked angry, like this was just adding another thing that she'd have to deal with that day. And, Endou noted, judging from the way she was screaming into the tape, she had a lot she wanted to say to her kidnappers.

The bluenette seemed to notice this and, after a nod from Melino, ripped the tape off her mouth. Her reaction was immediate.

"Gah… Hey! Watch it! That hurt!" Melino smiled apologetically.

"Again, I must apologise for my handmaiden's behaviour. We don't mean to hurt you any more than necessary. Glasīnā just been a little… antsy ever since her defeat at the Battle of Watling Street and she was forced to fake her death… convincingly." She shrugged. "She's young and holds a grudge. What can you do?"

Kyouko rolled her eyes. "Y'know, I'd be a bit more inclined to accept your apology if you didn't hide threats in them, and if you would LET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" She struggled against her bonds.

Sakura winced as she helplessly watched the video. "No. Don't agitate them, Kyouko."

Glasīnā hit her shoulder with the back of her palm. " _Læsa kwe deik staðr._ " Kyouko turned as far as she could to face her.

"Hey dummy, I can't understand a word you're saying, so shut up, will ya."

"She faces the same lack of understanding you do, Kyouko Sakura." Melino said. "She's hasn't been here long, so she hasn't quite grasped this language yet."

"So, she can't understand what I'm saying, huh?" A wry smile appeared on Kyouko face. "Well then, I guess she won't mind _this_ , will she?" And then she let loose a stream of profanity, insulting as many aspects of the bluenette as she could, tempting Endou to hit the mute button on the laptop until the torrent had ended.

"That's quite the cousin you have there, Dr. Sakura." Commented Kaiji.

A tinge of red appeared on Sakura's face as Kyouko went on to describe Glasīnā social life. "She's… had a rough life."

At last, Kyouko had had enough (or she'd run out of words) and grinned at Glasīnā, a satisfied look on her face. Glasīnā regarded her with a blank expression, then raised her hand and bonked her on the head. "Ow! Hey!"

Glasīnā looked at her, a large grin on her own face, and made a sound of disapproval.

" _Su-gnātso, Kyouko Sakura._ " She said. Melino let out a small chuckle.

"Just because she doesn't understand the words doesn't mean she can't see the meaning behind them. It'll do you well to remember that." She turned back towards the camera. "Kyouko Sakura. She is the cousin of Dr. Kay Sakura, Daughter of the Mad Prophet Sakura of Kazamino City and the only survivor of his murderous intent. Since then she's been a bit of a drifter. Wandering from place to place, stealing to survive, basically living it rough. It's made you a bit of an… unsavoury character, hasn't it?" She shook her head slightly. "What would your sister think?"

Kyouko had fallen silence. When she looked up, she had a look on her face that no person should ever give to another. "You better hope I never get free," she said in a quiet voice. "because when I do, I'll make you pay for that."

Melino smiled at her. "I'm sure you'll try. And I am sympathetic to your story." A look of sadness briefly came over her face. "I know what it's like to lose those close to you. But really, this isn't about you at all. It's about your cousin."

Kyouko frowned. "Kay? What does this have to do with her?"

"Well you see, she's involved in something we don't like." Melino explained. "And just as she's the only family you have left, you are the only family she has too. We just needed a little… leverage."

Kyouko scowled. "I'm not playing this game. I refuse to be a bargaining chip." She looked around and locked eyes with the camera. "Kay! I'll get out on my own! They can't hold me forever! Don't you dare make any deals with these cosplay rejects! I'll kick your ass if you do!" She struggled more vigorously against her bonds and started tipping over. She would have fallen flat on her face had Glasīnā not grasped her by the hair. Kyouko yelped as she was yanked back into position.

Melino gave her a disappointed look. "Really now. You should know better than to try something like that." She snapped her fingers. The yellow ribbons binding Kyouko flared with light and contracted.

Kyouko gasped in pain and stared daggers at Melino. "You bitc…"

"And that's enough of that mouth of yours too." Melino snapped her fingers again and more yellow ribbons flew off her body. Some of them wrapped themselves around Kyouko's head vertically, forcing her jaw shut, while the rest went to work covering the lower half of her face. When they were done, the redhead was left screaming into her new gag, but unable to form any comprehensible words.

Melino smiled at her. "Look on the bright side. There's no tape this time. No more unnecessary pain." Kyouko screamed again, then fell silent, giving her a look of venomous hatred.

A low moan came from the other silhouette. Melino looked back and smiled again. "Ah. It sounds like our other special guest has finally woken up. I think it's time we introduced her." She looked back at Glasīnā. " _Nu-Aljo._ " Glasīnā wasted no time pulling their second hostage into the light.

Endou's face fell. He recognised the girl Glasīnā dragged behind her. That harlequin dress, her fair skin, and those beautiful eyes, they were all things he was used to seeing every day. They were something that wasn't waiting for him when he got home yesterday, something that had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. He felt a great sadness well up inside him as his worst suspicions were confirmed.

Dr. Sakura noted Endou's distress. "She's someone you know, isn't she?" Endou nodded, unable to form the words. The psychologist glanced around slightly, and her eyes fell on the photo frame on his desk. She studied it briefly, then nodded. "Your daughter, right?"

Endou nodded again. "Tsarina. She… disappeared during the morning break at her school yesterday. No one's saw anything, and the police were clueless."

"Why didn't you say anything?" asked Kaiji.

"The same reason why Dr. Sakura didn't mention she had a cousin before today. I prefer to keep my personal life and my work life separate. We deal with a lot of sensitive and dangerous material here. I thought that by keeping my family in the dark about the details, they wouldn't be targeted by anyone wanting information." Endou shook his head sadly. "I never imagined that there'd be someone out there so twisted to threaten a helpless child."

Kaiji shifted uncomfortably, but didn't speak. He didn't have to. Kaiji had been protesting against Subject One's treatment from the start, and this situation, while the individuals involved were vastly different, it was still similar enough that comparisons could be made. Melino certainly seemed to think so, assuming that constant smile of hers actually meant anything.

Melino stepped over to Tsarina and, careful not to hurt her, removed the tape covering her mouth. She winched and tears filled her eyes.

"Sorry." Melino apologised. "As good as tape is, there's no way to remove it painlessly. Next time I'll use one of these, ok?" She materialised a ribbon above her palm. Tsarina's eyes widened.

"Am… am I dreaming?" she asked. Melino chuckled.

"That was my first thought when I discovered magic, back when bronze was a thing of legend. No, this is as real as anything."

"Then… where am I? Why am I here?" She looked around and saw Kyouko tied up and gagged right next to her. Fear crept into her voice. "Please! I want to go home!"

Melino smiled sadly. "Don't worry. You will, assuming your father cooperates. Stop." She turned back to Kyouko. "I can see your muscles tensing. You're brave and noble, like your father once was, but don't be stupid. All you'll achieve is falling on your face and hurting yourself, or," Her face hardened. "you'll force us to hurt you… and her." She gestured towards Tsarina. "Consider every piece on the board before you make your move. That's how you win at chess, correct?"

Kyouko said something into her gag, then slumped and went back to staring coldly at her captors.

"Oh, don't be like that." Melino said. "A willingness to risk your life for others is an admirable trait. You just need to learn to bide your time. Surely we'll slip up at some point, and _then_ you can risk both your well-beings. You won't succeed, but you are welcome to try." She turned back to Tsarina. "I'm terribly sorry about that. The youth of today just have no patience anymore."

Tsarina's eyes had quickly filled with panic as she realised the enormity of the situation she was in. "Help! Somebody please! Help!"

" _Mei-bawos._ " Glasīnā said.

"She's right." said Melino. "No sounds within this room can leave it. No one is coming to help you."

Tears streamed down Tsarina's face. "Please, just let me go. I promise not to tell. I'll say that my head was covered so I couldn't see you. The police will get nothing from me if you just let me go!"

"Enough." Melino commanded. "We have every intention of releasing you once we get what we want. The length of your stay is a variable only your father can control."

"Dad? Why would he want me to stay..." She looked at the camera and realisation dawned on her. "This is being filmed. You're making a ransom video!"

"You're bright," Melino replied, smiling at the young girl. "Though you could have deduced that much from our talk with Kyouko a minute ago."

"Listen." Tsarina said. "My Dad works for the government. He gets paid a lot."

"But we're not interested in money. What we want is justice."

Tsarina frowned. "Huh? I don't understand. Justice for what? Did my father do something to you?"

Melino smiled. "Were you not aware that your father is in the industry of kidnapping teenage girls with powers they don't understand and experimenting on them?" Tsarina's reaction was immediate.

"You're... you're lying!" she yelled. "Dad would never do something like that!"

"Is that so? Tell me, what exactly is your father's job?"

"He's... he's a researcher for the government."

"And what does he research, exactly?"

"He... I don't know."

"Let's hear what he does in his own words, shall we. _Glasīnā! Sǫgn, lĺka_."

" _To, Ioudo-Walo._ " Glasīnā replied, darting out of camera range. She returned a second later and handed Melino a piece of paper.

Melino cleared her throat. " _Subject One continues to resist our efforts to study her. After a simple request to display her powers, she proceeded to assault the two guards in the test chamber, take their weapons and attempted to break the one-way mirror, destroying the test chamber in the process. All of this during an immeasurable amount of time. If she had managed to break the mirror, her chances of escape increase dramatically. As such, I request an increase of funding to reinforce the remaining test chambers and secure the observation areas. To insure the safety of lab personnel, all guards who may come into contact with Subject One have been assigned high power tasers as a non-lethal alternative._ "

Melino's face hardened. "Subject One's _name_ is Homura Akemi. She's a 14 year old girl who just wants to go back to her old life, and your father authorised her guards to electrocute her whenever she resists, which they have done on several occasions."

"You're a liar!" screamed Tsarina. "That's not Dad. He would never…"

"Quiet!" Melino ordered before she continued reading. " _Of course, the fact that Subject One is capable of such feats serves to highlights why we brought her here in the first place. If we could harness her power, the civil and military benefits would be astronomical. However, while she continues to be uncooperative, little to no progress can be made. Because of this, I request permission to use the new drug 'Glazadrine' (see attached document for details). This sedative will make Subject One more complacent and docile with her new surroundings, while the addictive properties will allow us to control her easily. This is the easiest and most cost-effective option available to us. I await your reply._ " Melino smiled evilly. " _Sincerely,_ Dr Endou _, Head Researcher at Mitakihara Anomalous Research Facility_."

"How did they get that?" Endou said. "That report was sent over a secure line. Only our supervisors should have seen it."

"I guess you were right, Endou." Said Kaiji. "Someone has breached our networks."

"Is that even possible?" asked Sakura. "I mean… this facility's security is state of the art. Surely you would have been alerted if anyone had even tried to hack in, let alone succeed."

Endou was silent for a moment. "That was the design. But every system has a hole. We must have missed one. What's more interesting is that she chose to reveal this information to us."

"That's true." Kaiji said. "She could have kept that card close to her chest, yet she decided to reveal it for all to see."

"Maybe it's because she hasn't been able to get in."

Endou looked at Sakura quizzically. "What makes you say that?"

Sakura cleared her throat. "I mean; this report is something you sent _out_ of the facility. What do your supervisors do with your reports? Are their systems any more secure than yours?"

Endou thought for a moment. "Our systems are on a completely isolated network, almost completely inaccessible from the outside, and the government uses a similar design, but theirs is a lot more interconnected, meaning there are more chances of a mistake." He clutched his forehead. "I should have realised that before. I'm not thinking straight."

Sakura gave him a weak, but supportive smile. "All things considered, I'm surprised that you're able to focus at all, especially considering that your daughter's been kidnapped."

Back on the video, Melino folded the paper. "Well? Do you see how your father treats someone that is, as far as he knows, a fellow human? Do you still think your father is who he says he is?"

Fresh tears flowed from Tsarina's eyes, replacing those that had barely begun to dry. "Please… just stop… you're just a liar… I want to go home…"

Melino cupped the girl's cheek in her hand. "Don't worry, you will. We just needed to show you what a heartless and evil man your father is, so you know why we're doing this. Sometimes to fight evil, you must embrace it." She smiled at her, then turned back to the camera and gestured to her right.

"Tsarina Endou. Daughter of Dr. Endou of the Mitakihara Anomalous Research Facility. A complete innocent, drawn into the horrid world that is reality by those who don't care for her safety." Her face hardened. "This isn't her world, Doctors, just as a cell isn't Tanā Harma's, or Homura Akemi's, or whatever it is she chooses to call herself these days. All she did was save people, and she saved them by enduring a fate worse than death. Yet finally, when she could at long last see the golden light at the end, you snatched that happy ending away from her and ground it to dust. It's only natural that we should respond in kind."

Melino suddenly grabbed the girl, pulling her up to her own height. "Tsarina Endou is only thirteen years old, barely older than a child, right at the beginning of the road to maturity. Her health is good and her grades are better. Her future is a bright one, full of love and happiness. No one could have a better life than her." She then released Tsarina, letting her hit the ground with a thud. "Because of your actions, this girl's future has been shattered, forfeited the moment you decided to cross the Puella Magi. Whenever or not it can be reclaimed is up to you."

Glasīnā stepped forward again and pulled Tsarina's limp and whimpering form back into an upright position. She didn't resist. The look of despair on her face broke Endou's heart, and he found himself yearning for this Melino to hurry up and get to the point so his daughter's nightmare would end.

Melino smiled at the camera. "Now then. You know who we are, and I'm sure I don't need to explain what we want. So all we need to do is tell you what will happen if we don't get our way." Her smile became pitiful. "Oh, but I'm probably giving you humans too much credit, aren't I. Your thinking is so arrogant that you don't even know what you've done wrong, do you? Shall I detail your crimes for you? Let's start with the lesser of two evils."

Melino raised her arms, and two ribbons floated from her body, moving through the air as if they had a mind of their own. "Dr. Kay Sakura. You are a psychologist, a woman well versed in the art of manipulating minds. A vile practice in my opinion, but I can see the appeal to those of a lesser fortune than myself. To be able to forget one's fear and anxiety, even temporary, is a treasure so valuable that a person would be willing to kill for it. But that's not what you offer, Dr. Sakura. That's not what any of your _kind_ offer. You take a person's feelings and put them in a box, and then bury that box deep within your subject's mind, never to be seen again. And in doing so, you help your patient _move on_."

She shook her head. "That's not how the mind works, Dr. Sakura. Pain is a fundamental part of human nature, just as important as despair and love. To take that away, to stop them from feeling at all, is to destroy all that person was, to leave them an empty shell waiting for death. It is a sin to help one run from the pain, just as it's a virtue to help one embrace it, despite the costs of doing so. You are a despicable shadow of a person, Dr. Sakura, someone who should crawl back into the pit you came from and die, and yet you have the _audacity_ to practice your fowl arts on poor Homura Akemi."

Her expression turned hard and she began to gradually raise her voice. "You go into her cell and treat her like you think she's human, trying to convince her that her situation is all right, that she is ok. Here's the truth, Sakura. Your employers have her caged like an animal, and treat her as such, and you walk into the lion's den, offering peace of mind and the _hope_ that things will get better in an attempt to _tame her_. It is a false hope you offer, something far more destructive than any weapon you could possibly control! _Glasīnā! Moi vápn!_ "

Glasīnā stepped out of the light and grabbed an object off the far wall. As she re-entered the circle, the object was revealed to be a gun of exquisite design, with intricate patterns running down the length of the barrel, though the low quality made the details difficult to make out. She quickly presented the gun to Melino, who took it in her left hand and ran her fingers along it.

"This is a Percussion-lock Rifled Musket. I designed it myself. It's a lot more accurate than most of its kind, and has an edge to it that no modern gun can hope to match. An eloquent weapon for an eloquent Puella Magi, but devastating to its target. You see, Doctors, what makes us Puella Magi so special is that we are spawned through hope, the hope of a child's final wish as they lay dying alone on the cold ground. So when someone thinks they can go around spreading false hope, well, we take that very personally. This is an action that is unforgivable, and anyone who dares to do such a thing…" Melino's smile dropped. "…deserves to die." She suddenly flung her left hand out and fired.

"Kyouko! NO!" Dr. Sakura screamed and jumped towards the screen as Dr. Kaiji and Endou gasped with horror in their eyes.

Kyouko lurched at the impact, then, eyes wide with shock, collapsed, a crimson stain spreading across her chest. Sakura threw her hand over her mouth in shock while Tsarina screamed. Melino gestured and the ribbons binding her vanished, before smiling again at the camera, as if nothing had happened. "This is more than a simple punishment for your crimes, Dr. Sakura. Now all of you know exactly how serious we are." She glanced at Glasīnā. " _Tamawo yfir kolanī._ "

Glasīnā stepped over to Kyouko's fallen body, careful not to step in the growing pool of blood. Bending over, she grabbed Kyouko's shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Pulling the collar of her shirt down, she examined the bullet wound. Endou wasn't familiar with the extent of damage that bullets did to a body, but the wound was right on top of the heart. Generally, that was an injury that you couldn't recover from.

After poking and prodding the wound for a few seconds, Glasīnā turned back to Melino, showing zero emotion on her face. "S _ī budā lifa._ "

" _Ágætr_." Melino replied. "You are lucky I'm such a good shot, Dr. Sakura. I missed the heart and the heat of the bullet cauterised the lung. She'll live, assuming she gets proper treatment within the next week or so. Although…" She scrunched up her nose slightly as she looked over at the red-haired girl. "Judging from the amount of bleeding, I think I nicked an artery, so my estimations may be off a tad. I'm so sorry if she dies before our demands are met."

"You monster!" Said Sakura between choked sobs.

"Let's not dwell on such dreary subjects though. After all, I'm not finished yet." She tossed her gun to her right hand and aimed it at Tsarina. "As evil as you are, Dr. Sakura, you are no more than an ant compared to Dr. Endou, for he possesses something far more destructive than your false hope: Curiosity."

Melino shook her head. "Honestly, you humans and your natural curiosity. You are so eager to learn about the world around you, to try and make sense of everything, but you allow it to blindly drive your actions. Curiosity has allowed you to elevate your civilisation to the modern day, but at the expense of those around you. Just look at the world. Its air is polluted. Its plants are dying. Every night animals cry out in pain, yet you do not hear them. Your _civilised_ society may be paved in gold, but it's foundation is blood. It's probably be for the good of the planet if you refused our offer and we attacked, but like I said, we don't care what happens to you. The world always finds a way to correct the balance, so the Puella Magi won't need to intervene."

Melino tilted her head. "Still though, as destructive as _natural_ curiosity is, it is the _unnatural_ kind that always unsettles me. It's the kind of curiosity that drives men to do the unthinkable, to go beyond what is acceptable and hurt those around them. It has fuelled revolutions and toppled empires. It has taken the greatest, most respected scholars of their time, and cast them down into the pit of _insanity_ , creating an inhuman monster."

She looked straight down the camera. "That's what you are, Dr. Endou. A monster, and a particularly vile one at that. But don't feel that makes you anything special. You're not the first monster I've had the displeasure of crossing paths with. Alfred Nobel, a tinkerer and chemist who never learned when to stop. A merchant of death responsible for all the destruction in today's world. Robert Knox, a disgusting man who bought the corpses of the recently deceased and cut them open so he could map the human anatomy. He was so eager in his quest that he resorted to consorting with murderers Burke and Hare, just so the bodies would keep coming in. And then there's Eduard Wirths…"

Melino grimaced. "Actually, let's not discuss his work. The less said about the Nazi's Human Medical Experimentation, the better. Let's just say that I was overjoyed that there was a lapse in the Allies security that I could slip through." She smiled. "I have to admit, removing his taint from the world was an immensely satisfying moment for me. I confess, despite all my talk of never taking sides, I cannot stand injustice. Believe me, Dr. Endou, if you were simply practicing your methods on the average teenage girl, I'd just go to your home and put you down while you slept. But you've done something none of your predecessors have done before. You captured a Puella Magi. It's bigger than me now." She pulled the firing hammer back to its original position, the gun never straying once from its target.

"No!" Endou yelled.

Sakura stared at the screen "Is she really going to…"

"She's bluffing."

Endou looked over at Kaiji. "What?"

Kaiji pointed at the gun. "She said that was a Percussion-lock Rifled Musket. That's a lot of fancy words, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a Musket. Muskets only fire one shot. She's out of ammo."

"Are you sure?" Endou replied.

Kaiji looked away. "No. I'm not going to pretend to know for certain. But I'm willing to bet her gun is empty."

"Careful with what you say." Said Sakura, sorrow clear in her voice. "Don't give that monster a reason to go after your family as well."

"As _Ioudo-Walo_ , I must think of the Puella Magi first." Melino continued. "Therefore, it is imperativethat I make it clear that we are not to be trifled with, so an example must be made. Dr. Endou, as project leader, you have the power to end this, right here, right now. That, and that alone, is the only reason you are allowed to live. But that doesn't mean justice won't be served. You are a _hveðrungr_ from the depths of Gehenna, and you deserve a fate worse than death. If I can't dole out justice on you, then I'll just have to settle for your daughter." Tsarina screamed as Melino adjusted her aim and fired.

There was a small bang as the firing hammer fell onto the touch-hole, but nothing happened. Glasīnā glanced between Tsarina and the gun, a small wisp of smoke trailing from it's empty barrel. Melino tilted her head. "Well, that was disappointing. But not unexpected. After all, I'm dealing with the _greatest_ minds in all Japan. Surely you must have realised that my gun was empty, that once it fires, it becomes worthless." She opened her hand. Tsarina flinched as the gun clattered to the ground.

"However, I cannot say I was unprepared. After all, that gun..." Melino's smile twisted again. "...is just one of a million." Ribbons flew from her still outstretched arm. Glowing with an intense light, they spiralled around her hand so fast they seemed to form a solid cylinder. When the light faded, a brand new Musket rested in her hand, already primed and aimed at Tsarina, her brief relief turning into pure terror.

"Justice must be served, Dr. Endou," Melino said, allowing her smile to drop for a second time. "No matter who the recipient may be."

"STOP!" Yelled Endou futilely at the laptop screen. Kaiji and Sakura watched in horror as Tsarina broke into desperate sobs.

"PLEASE DON'T!" She flung her head around, looked straight at Glasīnā and screamed at her. "HELP ME!"

Glasīnā remained stone-faced, any objection she may have lost in her duty, while Melino held her aim steady, finger on the trigger and ready to fire.

And for several tense seconds, no one moved.

A low chuckle emerged from Melino. "Deserve a fate worse than death. Keyword: _Worse_. Believe it or not, there are far worse sentences than execution. In fact, execution is letting the perpetrator off lightly." She discarded the gun, allowing it to slide next to Kyouko's still bleeding body.

Tsarina let out a sigh of relief, but her expression changed to terror again when she saw Melino's menacing smile.

"Back in the days of ancient Judea, there was a practice undertaken to insure that true justice would always be served. Something by the name of _Lex Talionis_." Melino's expression darkened. " _'An Eye for an Eye; a Tooth for a Tooth; the punishment must fit the crime.'_ So here's how things will work, Dr. Endou. Every day Homura Akemi spends in that cell of hers, we will enact a toll from young Tsarina here, proportional to what happens to our friend. If you injure her, we'll injure her. If you electrocute her, we'll electrocute her. If you use Glazadrine on her..." She stopped and glanced back. " _Glasīnā, wrag-ā nīs nitjo Glazadrine?_ "

Glasīnā knitted her eyebrows for a second. " _Nī, saken nīs nitjo klam-ito dulā_."

" _Esti emos dī-re_." She turned back to the camera. "As it turns out, we don't have any Glazadrine. We'll just have to make do with some other kind of narcotic. There's a dealer a couple blocks away that may be convinced to part with his supply, in exchange for spending some… _time_ with your daughter."

The look of shock and horror on Sakura and Kaiji's face at what she was implying mirrored Endou's own.

"Or maybe I'll just threaten him. It depends on the mood I'm in, so it'll be best if you _don't_ test my patience." Melino said through clenched teeth, eyes almost glowing in the dim light. "This act of retaliation will continue until it becomes clear what your decision is. Not to say you have infinite time to decide. Kyouko here will die within a week without treatment, and Tsarina's ultimate fate is forestalled for only as long as our boredom is. You have until the next full moon to release Homura Akemi from her imprisonment before we consider it a declaration of war. Once that deadline passes, we will execute Tsarina and take back our stolen friend ourselves, and then we'll lay waste to this city you call Mitakihara, and after that, this archipelago you call a nation!"

Melino closed her eyes for a second and bowed her head. When she opened them, she stared straight into the camera, eyes filled with shadow and fire. "The deaths of over one hundred million people hang above your shoulders, Doctors, not to mention the countless others that will inevitably come to your aid. Choose wisely." And at that, the video ended.

For the longest moment, no one said a word, just stared at the now blank screen. Finally, Kaiji cleared his throat.

"I'm just going to ask the obvious. What do we do now?"

Endou looked at him for a few seconds, then averted his gaze. "I don't know."

* * *

"And cut." Leiko said.

Sayaka scowled. "Did you really have to say that?" Leiko adjusted her glasses and pulled the video camera off its tripod.

"It's an editing thing. Now I know where to end the video." She replied.

Mami reverted back to her normal clothes and smiled. "In any case, I think that our performance went pretty well."

Sayaka turned back to her. "Yeah, your acting was amazing Mami. I didn't know you could be so evil."

Mami smiled."Oh come on, I wasn't that good."

"You had me convinced." Grumbled Kyouko, slowly pushing herself off the floor. "Both of you. Did you _have_ to pull my hair?"

"Really? You just got shot through the heart and _that's_ what you're complaining about?"

"Meh, being shot isn't that bad. Besides, you're going to heal that in a bit. My scalp will never recover." Kyouko grinned, then winced as she stretched her left arm a little too far and pulled the wound.

Sayaka gave her a supportive smiled. "Come on, let's get that fixed." She bent down and placed a hand over the wound, grimacing as she felt the depth of the hole in her friend's chest. "Your movement tore open several arteries. If it wasn't for the fact that your heart died when you got shot you'd be bleeding by the bucket right now. You're only able to move thanks to your magic."

"Which I'm burning through quite quickly, so if you wouldn't mind hurrying up a bit." Kyouko said, smiling despite everything.

"Geez, impatient much?" Sayaka replied, before closing her eyes, with a look of concentration on her face. A series of three music staffs circled around the two, glowing with a blue light. Runes quickly appeared on them forming archaic words and spells that Mami couldn't understand. She shrugged her lack of understanding off. Despite being a three-year-veteran Magical Girl, she had never once been able to understand this secret language that appeared on SoulGem rings and inside labyrinths, and she doubted she ever would.

She'd even asked Kyubey about them once, but he'd just cryptically said that they were as old as Magical Girls and Witches themselves, and that the knowledge to read them was lost long ago. She could tell he knew more than that, but getting information out of an incubator was like pulling out teeth, so she had let the matter drop. At the end of the day, it didn't really matter if she knew what they said or not. They weren't trying to kill her, unlike everything else in a labyrinth, so really they were just an unnecessary distraction.

Mami looked around the room as the pool of blood around Kyouko started to recede back into her body. Leiko had snuck out at some point to burn their ransom video to a disk. Madoka wasn't here, as Sayaka had recommend she'd stay out of the plan entirely, to which Mami had strongly agreed. While she herself was quite idealistic, she understood the harshness of reality. Madoka still had an innocence to her that their performance would have shattered, and Mami wanted her optimistic views on what a Magical Girl should be to stay intact for as long as possible.

That left the green-clad Tsarina, who was still slumped over where they'd left her. She had her eyes firmly squeezed shut and judging from her expression she was trying to prove to herself that this was all just a bad dream. Mami sighed. Now for the hard part.

"Tsarina. I'd like to talk to you." Mami said softly. No response. "I know you're afraid of me, and considering what I just did, you're right to do so. But I want to explain my actions, so I need you to listen to me." Still no response. Frowning, Mami reached over and tapped her shoulder.

Tsarina shrieked and sprang into action, her limp body suddenly writhing and convulsing against her bonds as she tried to get away from Mami, to get away from the girls holding her captive. Mami sprang back, startled by her sudden and violent reaction to a simple tap.

"Everything ok over there Mami?" Asked Sayaka, eyes still closed.

"I'm… I'm fine." Mami replied. "You concentrate on healing Kyouko."

"Ok then, just get her to quiet down. Regrowing heart tissue is difficult and I need to focus."

"Right." Mami returned her attention to Tsarina. "Tsarina, I need you to be calm, alright?"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Tsarina yelled. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Look, I just want to talk. I was lying when we said we'd hurt you. It was all a lie, ok? Just calm down and listen."

"STAY AWAY! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Tsarina's struggles allowed her to make a little progress towards the door. Mami could have tightened her ribbons so it was impossible for her to move, but she saw no reason to torment the poor girl any further.

"Listen to me Tsarina." She said, quietly but firmly, like her own mother used to when she was being unreasonable. "We have no intentions to hurt you. Every threat we made was a lie. I'd never be able to live with myself if I allowed an innocent person like you to come to harm. Believe me when I say that my job is to prevent disasters like that."

"WHY SHOULD I?" Tsarina screamed back at her. Mami's face fell, inwardly hating herself for making the girl like this, but the logical part of her brain acknowledged that Tsarina had responded, meaning she was listening.

"It's the truth. I truly am sorry about every lie I told you, but we needed to fool your father enough so we could free our friend." Mami winced as she realised her mistake.

Tsarina's voice rang with new vigour at the mention of her father. "LIAR! ALL YOU DO IS LIE!"

"Look, let me explain every lie I told you. Let's start with my name. It isn't Melino, it's Mami Tomoe. I'm a Ninth-grader at Mitakihara Middle School, and I just want my friend back safe and sound." Tsarina didn't stop struggling, but her screams died down to a whimper, so Mami assumed that what she was saying was working. She quickly pointed to where Sayaka was working her magic. "Look over there, Tsarina. Kyouko Sakura isn't dead. My friend Sayaka Miki is healing her body right now. She'll be up and moving again in a few minute, just you watch."

"What about my father? Was that all a lie too?" Tsarina said in a small voice, finally stopping her struggles. "Did you fake that letter?"

Mami cringed, but knew that lying now would undermine everything she'd just said. "No. That was all real. I deeply wish that it was false, and that our friend was being treated humanely while they held her captive, but the harsh truth is that she's not. With your father in charge, Homura Akemi is being treated like a lab rat. She isn't allowed out of her cell, she can't go out into the sunshine. She can't even be with the one she loves more than anything in this world. Your father is a cruel man, and the only way to strike at him, to get him to give us what we want and release Homura, was to kidnap you. I'm sorry."

Tsarina laid there still for a few seconds, then small, choked sobs emanated from her. Mami smiled sadly, knowing that though it had hurt to hear it, Tsarina had accepted her words as truth. She waved her hand and the ribbons binding Tsarina vanished. Kneeling down next to her, Mami picked up her crying form, holding her close as she let out her emotions, the tears soaking into her clothes serving as a reminder of what she had done to this poor girl.

"I just want to go home..." Tsarina whispered between sobs. "Please Ms. Tomoe… let me go home."

"Don't worry." Mami reassured her. "You'll get to go home once all this is over. Just be patient. In the meantime, ask me any question, and I will answer truthfully, provided I know what the answer is."

Tsarina nodded. "Ok… um… where am I?"

Mami smiled at her. "We're in a warehouse in the Industrial District, far from any curious ears. That's why we were confident that your yelling wouldn't be heard."

Tsarina paused for a second before asking her next question. "What are you?"

"Was my explanation not good enough before?" Mami asked jokingly. "I'm a Puella Magi, or Magical Girl as we more commonly call ourselves. We give our lives to fight the curses of the world and save people from despair."

"Um… ok." Tsarina took a moment to let it sink in. "What happens to me now?"

"Now." Mami smiled warmly at her. "We are going to take you to my apartment in..."

"A place you don't need to know." The now fully healed Kyouko interrupted, quickly closing the gap between them. She bent down and outstretched a finger. "Tsarina, I need you to follow my finger, ok. Watch it, keep your eyes on it." Kyouko slowly moved her finger closer, making Tsarina go cross-eyed as she instinctively followed its movement. "Good, now sleep."

Kyouko tapped her on her forehead, right between her eyes. Tsarina's pupils dilated, glowing a slight shade of red as Kyouko's magic took control, then they rolled back into her head as she visibly slumped.

Mami's anger rose as quickly as she stood up. "Why did you do that? She was cooperating and docile! There was no nee-"

"What the hell were you thinking?" Kyouko snapped back, her blood-soaked jacket giving her anger more force. "You should have explained how our SoulGems work or how to make a contract while you were at it!"

"What are you..."

"Are you really that gullible, _Senpai_?" Kyouko said mockingly. "While you were busy playing loving mother, she was squeezing you for information! We might as well turn ourselves in if we're that loose with our secrets!"

"She's a scared and traumatised child!" Mami yelled.

"She's the daughter of Dr. Endou, a renowned scientist." Kyouko shot back. "I'm willing to bet that she's just as intelligent as her father. The less she knows, the better!"

"I'm with Kyouko on this one, Mami." Said Sayaka, her gloves stained with Kyouko's blood from the healing. "For us to pull this off, we need to maintain an air of anonymity the whole time, even after Homura's free. And for that to work, those involved can't be told anything."

"I get it!" Mami said, beaten. "I messed up, ok? Forgive me for trying to be nice to the poor thing. You're just going to erase her memories once we're done anyway, so does it even matter?"

" _Suppress_! Not _erase_!" Kyouko said through gritted teeth. "All I can do is convince her to forget what happened. I can force the magic to last a month, at best. Hopefully that'll be long enough for her brain to rewrite itself around the hole. But on the chance that she does remember, either immediately or in years to come, I'd like to still be able to run around hunting witches as I please, not pulling your sorry ass out of the fire."

Mami folded her arms. "Fine. Once again, I admit I made a mistake, but couldn't you at least have waited until you were fully healed before you knocked her out? You probably terrified her looking like that."

"Huh? What are you…?" She looked down and gawked at the state of her shirt. "What the… SAYAKA, I THOUGHT YOU PUT ALL MY BLOOD BACK INTO MY BODY!"

"I did, but the body regenerates blood as it heals, so not all of it could go back it." Sayaka shrugged and held up her stained glove. "You're not the only one with your blood on your clothes, you know."

Kyouko rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, getting blood on your magical girl costume is exactly the same. It's not like you can just disenchant it and the stain disappears forever. Bit different in my situation."

"Aw, is Kyouko annoyed that her clothes got a bit dirty?" Sayaka said, grinning.

"Oh, now you're going to get it." Kyouko replied, lunging at Sayaka. She quickly leaped out of the way, but Kyouko grabbed her cape and pulled her in, embracing her in a massive bear hug.

"Hey, let go! You'll get more blood on me!" Sayaka yelled.

Kyouko grinned. "Not a chance, dummy. I'm never going to let you go!" They both fell to the ground, entangled with each other, Sayaka yelling at Kyouko to stop and Kyouko laughing at her partner's distress.

Mami left the two of them rolling around, stepping into the next room where Leiko had set up her laptop. The white haired girl had already run a cable into the video camera and her hands were flying over the keyboard. "How's it going?"

"Fine. There's very little that needs editing here, and really, the less tampering I do, the more likely it is to be taken as fact and not some amature film with fancy special effects."

"So what exactly are you doing?"

Leiko rolled her eyes. "I'm decreasing the quality of of the footage so it'll be useless with facial recognition software. It's better to do this than erase your identity. I'm sure you and Sayaka want to keep your lives intact."

Mami nodded. "Of course. Thank you for looking out for us."

Leiko's hands froze for a second, before continuing their rapid movement. "I'm only looking out for myself. If they find you, they'll find me, after all."

Mami smiled. "I think Madoka would agree when I say you're lying."

Leiko pulled her hoodie up. "Anyway. I'm also going to add a little surprise of my own."

Mami's eyes narrowed. "What kind of surprise?"

"Relax, it's just more footage of our act. I doubt they'll find it on their own, but if they get a forensics team in to examine it, it'll be definite proof that we are who we say we are." Mami shifted uncomfortably.

"And what are we, exactly?"

Leiko frowned. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"We kidnapped a child and threatened her well-being. Sure, the threat's hollow, but the fear we'll inspire in her father..."

Leiko stopped typing and turned to face her. "Look. What we're doing isn't pretty. It isn't nice. But it is necessary. At the very least, we'll force them to not administer Glazadrine to Homura, and we both know that when they start doing that it's over for all of us. Best case scenario, we get Homura back, Tsarina gets to go home and never sees us again, and Dr. Sakura disappears from the face of the Earth. If we're lucky, we'll scare the government so much that they'll purge all their findings on Magical Girls. Whatever happens though, we cannot afford to let our guard down because of our moral compass. The full moon is 18 days away, and a lot can happen in that time."

"I know." Mami sighed and shook her head slightly. "I know that we have to do this. I just wish there was another way."

Leiko went back to typing. "We don't have a lot of options, and every other plan has the potential to go horribly wrong. This is the one with the least risk to normal humans. You said so yourself."

Mami nodded, mostly to herself. "Moving on, I'm a little worried about some of the things we said."

"Like?"

"Well, firstly there's the language you provided. I've never read or spoke something like that, and I'm certain I made mistakes. Wouldn't they notice?"

Leiko's lips tightened into a smile. "Not a chance. That language is a mix of Proto-Celtic and Old Norse. It's been almost 3000 years since anyone spoke a word of it, and I guarantee that people have been arguing about it's proper pronunciation. If anything, the historical community will latch onto your mistakes and treat them like the word of god. Congratulations Mami, you and Sayaka made linguistic history today."

"Oh stop it." Mami replied, smiling again. "The other thing I'm worried about is the email. Is revealing that we've been hacking their systems really wise?"

Leiko shrugged. "Probably not. But I've hit the limit of what I can do with the current setup. I need to force a change."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I had a peak at their protocol. _'In the event that communications are being disrupted or tampered with, commence radical network infrastructure rearrangement'_ , which essentially means change _everything_. They'll restructure the system framework, do a full OS swap. Hell, they'll even replace the BIOS, of all things." She opened her mouth to continue, then saw Mami's confused expression.

She sighed. "The BIOS is major part of a computer's structure. It handles data management and works out what-goes-where, like a signal from the keyboard or a new window opening on the monitor. To change that is to fundamentally change how a computer works."

"I think I get it." Mami said, clearly not understanding much besides it's important. "But it took you a week to hack in last time. Would starting over make things easier?"

"Not at all, if they do the job right. However, I've haven't just been monitoring Homura for the last few weeks. I've been busy hacking other areas of government. In particular, their backup servers."

"I thought you were trying to keep your presence to a minimum. Why did you..." Mami's eyes widened. "You messed with the lab's new network."

"Glad to see you're finally catching on." Leiko replied. "With the current system, I'm limited by their file-storage security measures. I can't risk tripping them, so I can only see what gets sent between computers. Their replacement system, on the other hand, I've managed to crack wide open. As long as I don't actively change files or give system commands, I can go wherever I want and read any files I need to without being detected. I can't work miracles like opening Homura's door or summon the elevator, since they seem to be controlled locally, not via the network, but now we'll be able to see everything they see."

"That's amazing, Leiko." Mami said, beaming. "I knew we could count on you."

"Don't mention it." She replied in her usual dry tone. She tapped a few more keys and finally stopped. "And with that, I'm done."

Leiko reached into her pocket and pulled out some gloves. Carefully pulling them on, she unzipped her bag and grabbed a plain black CD case, still in it's packaging. She unwrapped it and placed it gently down next to her. Next, she ejected the disk and put in the case. Grabbing a marker from her bag, she slowly wrote the ominous threat on the disk. When she finished, she closed the case. "Hey! Kyouko! Get over here!"

There was some scuffling in the other room, and a few seconds later Kyouko walked in. "Yeah?"

Leiko held up the case. "All done. Time to head back so you can get ready."

Kyouko grinned. "Gotcha." She reached for the case, then hesitated. "It's ok for me to touch this, right?"

Leiko shrugged. "It'd be more suspicious if your fingerprints weren't all over it, assuming you don't change that when you're Dr. Sakura."

She shook her head. "Nah. Too much effort to change a detail no one pays attention to anyway."

Leiko rolled her eyes. "The _police_ pay attention to that. Have you ever been caught or have the police ever taken your fingerprints."

Kyouko scowled. "Are you trying to start a fight? Of course not."

"Then there's no problem." Leiko said dryly. "Just don't get caught for anything after today and you'll be fine."

"What about the stuff you've stolen?" Mami asked. "Would the police have found your fingerprints and stored them as evidence?"

Leiko thought for a moment. "I don't think so. Shoplifting isn't really something they'd do a full forensics sweep on."

Kyouko nodded. "Yeah, it's not like I was jacking cars and robbing banks and stuff. I only stole what I needed to survive, that's all."

"What about the food you stole to support your eating habits?" Sayaka said, entering the room (with noticeably no blood stains on her costume at all, Mami noted). "That wasn't necessary."

Kyouko shot her a look. "Shouldn't you be watching that Endou kid? Y'know, making sure she doesn't wake up suddenly and bolt?"

Sayaka waved her off. "Come on, you know your own skill better than me. Tsarina isn't going to wake up for another several hours."

"Anyway," Kyouko said, grabbing the case and stuffing it in her pocket (the one not soaked in her blood). "I'll meet you back at Mami's place. Can't exactly head back with you with a blood stained shirt, it'd be too suspicious, so I'll take the rooftops. See ya."

"Wait." Mami grabbed Kyouko's arm before she could dart out the door. "I want to apologise."

Kyouko frowned. "Huh? What for?"

"What I said about your sister being ashamed." Mami's eyes dropped. "That was out of line, I should never..."

"It's fine." Kyouko replied, her voice expressionless. "You were just explaining who I was, nothing more."

"No. It's not. I knew better than to bring that up, I know how much it hurts you to think of stuff like that."

"I said I'm fine." Kyouko pulled her arm free. "Later."

Mami looked back at Sayaka as Kyouko disappeared out the door. She shrugged. "Don't worry about it too much, Mami. She's tough, something like that wouldn't shake her too much."

"I don't know." Mami shook her head. "You saw how she looked at me when I talking about her sister. I was just so focused on being in character, I didn't even think about her feelings on the matter."

"And in case you didn't notice, Kyouko stayed in character too, despite the mention of her sister." Sayaka smiled. "Look, I'll ask her about it later, alright? If it's really bothering her, she'll tell me. For now just let her run on the rooftops without a care. She needs to be alone right now, why else would she have used that reason to run off on her own when we have a car?"

"I thought she was just being her usual, idiotic self." said Leiko.

Mami ignored her. "Thanks Sayaka. You're a good friend. Kyouko's lucky to have you." Sayaka laughed nervously to herself as she scratched the back of her neck, waving it off, but Mami could tell she had been moved by the compliment. Sayaka was the best thing that could have happened to Kyouko, and really, they both needed each other, especially after Sayaka almost had a breakdown last month. It warmed her heart that such bitter rivals could become so close.

"Hey, catch!" Leiko said, tossing her bag to Sayaka. "Do us all a favour and feed that to a familiar."

"Um, why?" Sayaka asked, unzipping the bag. Inside were the gloves, camera and everything else they had used to make the video. Even Leiko's laptop was inside.

"It's all evidence." Leiko replied. "As much as I'd like to be as happy and optimistic as Madoka, I'd rather not take any chances. The police are looking for Tsarina's kidnappers, after all. If we get arrested and they can't find this stuff, they won't be able to prove that we did it. It called plausible deniability."

"We exposed our magic on camera." Sayaka replied, irritated. "Chances are the government will take us straight from custody as soon as they find out."

" _You_ exposed your magic on camera. As far as the government knows, Leiko Amaya is just an ordinary teenage girl."

Sayaka scowled. "So essentially you just want us to cover for yourself, is that it?"

Leiko rolled her eyes. "The government isn't going to give up once this is over, you know. I just want as small a trail as possible."

Sayaka zipped the bag back up."Fine. It'll make a light snack for a happy little familiar. But you know, this is some very expensive equipment you're asking us to destroy. Are you sure you want to?"

Leiko nodded. "Better safe than sorry. Besides, that laptop wasn't even worth the value of it's parts. I won't miss it."

Sayaka shrugged. "Whatever, let's just get going. This place kind of freaks me out a bit." Leiko stood up and walked out the door towards where she'd parked her hired car, while Mami and Sayaka went back into the room where Tsarina laid sleeping.

Mami looked down at the girl in the green dress. She looked so young, so innocent. Yet Mami couldn't forget how terrified and distressedshe had looked after everything she'd done to her. She bent over and looked at Sayaka. "Give me a hand, I don't want to drop her."

Sayaka nodded and grabbed Tsarina's ankles. Mami likewise grabbed her shoulders and together they hefted Tsarina up and started carrying her out of the room and into the warehouse greater. As they walked, she noticed crevices and long gashes on the walls. To most, it would just appear that the building was just old and worn, but to a Magical Girl, they were the telltale signs of a battle, left over from a confrontation on the edge of a labyrinth. Suddenly, she realised this must have been where Sayaka had rushed in to save Madoka from the Box Witch, over a month ago.

Mami smiled to herself. That had been Sayaka's first battle. She had only made a contract minutes before Kyubey informed her that Madoka and their friend Hitomi had fallen under a witch's curse. She had rushed in recklessly without thinking to call her first, and both she and Homura agreed that the battle could have gone very differently if the witch had been any stronger. On the other hand, if Sayaka had called her, she would have arrived too late to save Madoka or any of the numerous victims that witch had gathered. Homura had claimed that she had the situation under control before Sayaka arrived though, and that's where their agreement ended.

They walked out the warehouse door and towards where Leiko was waiting for them. The car she had rented was simple, not flashy or anything that would stand out, but it's tinted windows and reflective coating would allow them to get across Mitakihara without any curious onlookers realising that the child in the back was the one who was kidnapped earlier today. Or that the driver is an underaged, white-haired teenager that looks like a stereotypical delinquent. Still, Mami took extra care to prop Tsarina into an upright position in the backseat and did up her seat belt, so if anyone did look in, it would just look like she had a long day after school and fell asleep on the way home.

"Come on you two." Leiko said impatiently. "We need to get going."

"We'd go faster if you…" Sakaya trailed off, her gaze drifting to the north. "That witch is getting close, huh. I can feel its curse from here."

Mami nodded. "I feel it too. The labyrinth is almost right on top of us."

Sayaka glanced back at Tsarina, then slung the bag over her elbow. "Well, I guess I better get going. Don't want to let that monster claim any more victims tonight."

Mami looked at her with a worried expression. "Are you sure you're ok by yourself? Witches tend to be unpredictable and I know that healing took more magic from you then you're letting on."

Sayaka gave her a confident grin. "Don't worry Mami, I'll be careful. After that damn witch almost bit your head off, I've been treating every single one like that little devil. I won't be caught off guard"

"If you're sure… just come back safe, alright? We need you if we're going to pull this off."

"Will do. See you tomorrow!" Sayaka turned and started walking to the north. Mami closed the back seat car door and got in the passenger side up the front.

"So what was that about getting your head bitten off?" Leiko asked, looking down at her phone with electricity flying into it from her fingers.

"I don't want to talk about it." Mami shuddered at the memory, remembering how time had seemingly slowed to a halt as that wide jaw, those pointed teeth, rushed towards her and she realised that she was going to die. Then suddenly being pulled back and helplessly watching as Homura got eaten in her place. That's how it had seemed, anyway. Even though she now knew how Homura had pulled off that particular trick, it still amazed her how the aloof girl had faced her possible demise with the utmost calm, barely batting an eyelid. "Ask Homura when we break her out, she can explain it better than me."

"Alright then." Leiko replied, turning the key and starting the car. "If it was that much of an embarrassment, I won't force you to tell me."

Mami ignored the jab and looked in the mirror as Leiko started driving. Sayaka had stopped walking close to the fenceline. Her back to them, her sword was drawn and held high, her cape blowing in the wind and the bag visible on her side. She slashed downward, and in a flash, she was gone.

* * *

 **Back in early October, I was lying in bed one night, horribly ill and unable to get to sleep. I decided to forgo the futile attempt to get some rest and browse through some fanfiction. 2 weeks earlier, my friend Amy May had pointed me towards an Anime called Puella Magi Madoka Magica which I promptly fell in love with, so I decided to see if there any good fanfics of it. Scrolling through the list, a story called 'Perfect Crime' caught my eye, and I spent the next 2 hours reading all 22 chapters of it. Eager for more (and because sleep** _ **still**_ **wasn't coming), I looked at the Atomyst's other works. Test Subject One struck me as an unusual concept, and so I started reading the 6 chapters it had at the time.**

 **By the end, my mind was alive with possibilities and potential outcomes (I even left a review stating a few), and from the activity, this story was born. Initially, I clamped down on it, saying to myself that I have a Zelda Fanfic I had to get started on (which I still haven't started :/ ), but after Atomyst expressed an interest in it, I let my creativity fly into the keyboard, creating what you see here today (almost 4 months later :P ).**

 **A big thanks to PK. Atomyst, the Writing Wizard, for letting me write and post this, and for all the help you gave me through advice and letting me beta-read for you** **as well as listening to my ideas for how TSO should go (I'm the one who ate Kyouko's apples and finished Mami's sugar :P ). I really couldn't have done this without you. More thanks to Saioul, who created the images I used for the cover. I hope that when you come out of hiatus and see my message, you'll let me use them :D**

 **For those of you wondering, yes, I have plans for a chapter 2, however I cannot promise it will be written and released anytime soon. I have several other writing projects that require my attention and I cannot afford to commit myself to this. I'm sorry. But still feel free to follow me. After all, surely I must have some free time at some point. Just have a little patience.**

 **Thank you for giving me your time and reading the work that has consumed my life for the last few months. If you want to see more, give me a follow (maybe a fav?), and go check out my other works. Feel free to give me a review, I'm happy to hear all opinions (even hatred :D ).**

 **P.S. I wrote Tsarina's character based solely from her name. How the hell was I suppose to know that Tsarina vanished from home when Atomyst won't tell me anything?! :P**

* * *

 **This is a list of all the Proto-Celtic/Old Norse words I used in this story with their meaning, put into order of appearance. It's not 100% accurate, but then, when is any dead language?**

 **Bawano Din - Good (fortune) Day**

 **Ioudo-Walo - Battle Leader**

 **Melino - Yellow {Mami's fake name}**

 **Tanā Harma - Eternal Griever (literally "Time Grief") {Homura's fake name}**

 **Glasīnā - Blue thing {Sayaka's fake name}**

 **Tuago Exs-skāto - Come out of the shadows {literally "Come out of Shadow"}**

 **To, Ioudo-Walo - Yes, Battle Leader**

 **Langos - an insult {let's just say it's vulgar and leave it at that :P }**

 **Su-gnātso - Good Manners**

 **Sollo beir dlig-o - All they deserve**

 **Wīrjā - Truth**

 **Qera geistlo - Bring forward Red Hair {referring to Kyouko}**

 **Læsa kwe deik staðr - Shut up and show respect**

 **Nu-Aljo - Now the second**

 **Mei-bawos - Useless (literally "lessen use")**

 **Sǫgn, lĺka - Report, please**

 **Moi vápn - My weapon**

 **Tamawo yfir kolanī - Check her body (literally "Look at Corpse")**

 **Sī budā lifa - She will live**

 **Ágætr - Excellent**

 **Hveðrungr - Monster**

 **Gehenna - A cursed valley outside ancient Jerusalem. It's translated in the modern Bible to hell**

 **wrag-ā nīs nitjo Glazadrine - Do we have Glazadrine**

 **Nī, saken nīs nitjo klam-ito dulā - No, but we have sickness leaf**

 **Esti emos dī-re - That is fine**


End file.
